


Kisses

by missingparentheses



Series: Prompt-Inspired Rhinky Drabbles [4]
Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 05:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11396277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missingparentheses/pseuds/missingparentheses
Summary: Rhett and Link don't kiss on the mouth.





	Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt brought to you by an anonymous Tumblrite: 'Headcanon: they never kiss **on the mouth** (actual gmm? quote from R/ -R didn't say they never kiss, he said "that's one of the many reasons I never kiss L on the mouth"). Have fun letting your brain play before you have to get back to work!'

When they were seven, Rhett kissed Link on the hand.

It was just a joke. He’d been galloping around the yard pretending he was a knight, and Link had been under the impression he was the dragon. He had been the dragon up to that point, he was sure of it, but then it turned out Rhett expected him to be every other character in the story too. Suddenly Rhett stopped and bowed, all poise and chivalry, took Link’s hand in his, and kissed its back with a less-than-chivalrous smooching sound.

“Eww!” Link squealed, yanking his hand away. “Why’re you kissin’ me?”

Rhett scoffed. “You’re the princess, dummy. I just saved your life.”

“I ain’t the princess. I’m the dragon,  _dummy._ ”

“Well, then who’s gonna be the princess?”

Link paused and thought. Finally he smiled. “You’re the knight. I’m the prince. Thank you for saving my life, Sir Rhett.” Then he took Rhett’s hand and kissed it back.

* * *

When they were fifteen, Link kissed Rhett on the hair.

“I thought she liked me.” Rhett’s voice cracked, and he chuckled and shook his head, feeling stupid.

“You can do better, bo.”

Rhett sucked in a shaky breath and wiped at the corner of his eye. “I’m such an idiot. Don’t you dare tell anyone I was cryin’.”

“Who would I tell? C’mere.” Link wrapped the crook of his elbow around Rhett’s neck and pulled him down until Rhett’s head was at the level of his chest, then he yanked him backward until they were both lying flat on the grass, still warm from the now-vanished sun. Rhett let himself be drawn in, and he shifted onto his side to rest with his head tucked against the right side of Link’s chest. He felt the press of lips into his short hair, but the instinct to tense at the unfamiliar show of intimacy vanished when the kiss was followed by the easy caress of Link’s fingertips in his hair. If Link was comfortable, Rhett knew he had no reason to do anything but enjoy the comfort. He sighed, contented, and let himself be held.

* * *

When they were twenty, Link kissed Rhett on the cheek.

Rhett had been in Slovakia all summer, and it was the longest they’d been separated since the day they met. In the beginning he’d been bored. He had other friends, sure, and he had a job to keep him busy during the day too. But no one else injected excitement into his life the way Rhett did.

When the boredom had passed, he’d gotten angry. His mom shooed him out of the house to find something to do when he snapped at her, but he would just drive around, too fast and too aimless, and end up right back at home where he stormed up to his room and slammed the door.

Eventually the anger had focused and become directed at Rhett. Where did he get off leaving him for a whole summer? Weren’t they a team, after all? Weren’t they an inseparable duo? Who was Link supposed to be without Rhett? And did Rhett suddenly think he was something without Link? Was Link just an optional part of his life, that he could be cast off for months at a time when it was convenient?

Link was at the airport waiting with Rhett’s family when he arrived home. He couldn’t stop his hands from shaking, and he hung back while the McLaughlins took their hugs in turn. Rhett’s eyes darted over their shoulders as he grinned past them at his best friend, and Link knew he was a lost cause. He’d known it when the anger had passed into longing.

The hug he’d given him there in the terminal was tight and sincere but brief, complete with manly back-slaps and a hint of playful roughness. But after Rhett’s “Welcome Home” dinner, they’d made their way to the river before the sun fully set, and Link clung to him like he’d only just remembered what it was like to breathe again.

Rhett didn’t tease him for his tears — after all, Link hadn’t teased Rhett for crying when he’d been dumped years before. And when Link turned his head and pressed his lips to Rhett’s cheek, Rhett let him. It only lasted a moment, and the only words spoken were the desperate prayers in Rhett’s head that he would do it again.

* * *

When they were thirty-eight, Rhett kissed Link on the jaw.

He’d been staring those lips down for so many years, and he’d fixated on what not to do to them. It was so ingrained now, the instinct to approach Link’s mouth drawing a sigh from Rhett’s mouth and a lick of the lips followed by the oft-rehearsed internal mantra:  _he doesn’t belong to you._

So when Rhett found Link curled up asleep in his loft recliner in the middle of the day, Rhett’s body had brought him near, his drive kicking in before his mind redirected at the last moment. But he’d hesitated a fraction of a second too long, and the redirection only pulled him away by two inches. He’d landed and been unable to pull away. He couldn’t remember the last time his lips had been pressed to Link’s skin, but he was fairly certain Link had been a prince at the time.

The next kiss had settled in the divot beneath Link’s ear, and the sound Rhett heard from his friend’s throat was somewhere between a dreamy sigh and a groan of pleasure. It sent Rhett’s head spinning, and he chased it, tracing the line of the long tendon in Link’s neck with two more kisses, the last laid to the curve where his neck met his shoulder.

“Rhett,” came the whisper of his best friend. Rhett closed his eyes and pressed his forehead into that same curve.

****“It doesn’t count,” Rhett whispered back. “It’s no different than before.”

“Says who?”

“It only counts if it’s on the lips,” Rhett ignored him. He hooked his finger into the collar of Link’s t-shirt, pulling it to the side and pressing a kiss to the ridge of his collarbone. Another groan escaped Link’s throat, this one sharp and fully aware.

“Who made that rule, Rhett?”

Rhett pulled the collar further, stretching it until he heard tiny threads beginning to snap. The curve of Link’s pec was met with the brush of lips followed by the tip of a tongue trailing a line across the skin, and Link reached up to grip Rhett’s head. He bent his neck to kiss Rhett’s temple, his forehead, the waves of his hair. When Rhett released Link’s collar, Link felt his disappointment for only a moment before the kisses trailed down the front of his shirt and disappeared beneath the bottom hem.

“Anywhere but the lips?” Link gasped as Rhett’s mouth drew circles around his belly button.

“Makes sense to me,” Rhett murmured into the skin of Link’s hip, his fingers dipping into his waistband to expose the sharp edge of the bone.

“Then don’t stop now.”

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
> __  
> [Visit me on Tumblr and send me a prompt!](https://missingparentheses.tumblr.com/ask)  
>   
> 


End file.
